Service costs associated with rendering devices such as printers can vary depending on the age of the rendering device, wear and tear caused as a result of usage of rendering device components, parts and labor cost, mechanical complexity of the rendering device, and so forth. Every customer environment possesses printers of variable average service cost and end users that perform daily printing operations without knowing printing costs or the availability of printing options that might reduce printing costs. Consequently, end users for printing devices generally use a favorite and a most convenient printer even though their selection can lead to increased printing costs for the enterprise.
Cost of printing is generally charged on basis of price per click, i.e., the price paid per impression generated by the print device. Printing costs are generally fixed in long term contracts signed between the customer and a service company providing the print services. Hence, there is generally no opportunity to change the CPC (cost per click) cost to the customer in between the contract life. Also, it can be difficult to justify to the end users that they must be aware of costs for comparable print devices. Therefore, as it is realized that some print devices can cost more when compared to others in terms of service cost, the service company has no opportunity to perform optimization in order to save money. The service company can wait until print devices with growing higher service cost arrive at a limit of the life term or exceed a threshold of maximum service cost so as to replace the print device with newer print devices. Because of the lack of rendering device optimization, opportunities to save enterprise costs are lost. Consequently, there is a need for a system and method of alerting the end-user regarding the variable service cost associated with comparable print devices to enable the end-user to choose a lower service cost comparable print device in order to reduce the overall rendering cost.
Based on the foregoing, it is believed that a need exists for an improved print management system and method for optimizing cost associated with rendering devices (e.g., printer) in a customer environment. A need also exists for rendering a complex job at a reliable lower service cost comparable printer in order to save overall rendering cost, as described in greater detail herein. There is also a need for a system that can automatically direct print jobs to the most cost competitive rendering device available to an end user based on printing policies that can be set up by the end user or the enterprise.